Descriptions

The rapid pace of climate change and increased human disturbance of ecosystems in the Arctic is bringing urgency to concern over non-native species introductions and their potential threats to the marine environment and its economic productivity, where before environmental conditions served as a barrier to their establishment. The same characteristics that have previously made the Arctic less open to the establishment and spread of invasive species are ones that make the potential problem so expansive. At stake are unique species and co-evolved systems that have taken millennia to develop. Small perturbations in the fragile Arctic ecosystems are likely to have outsized impacts both ecologically and economically. This work discusses the optimal management of international invasive species threats in order to minimize overall damages and costs. The related cases of the purposeful introduction of the red king crab (RKC) and the accidental introduction of the snow crab in the Barents Sea, and the red king crab’s recent identification in Icelandic waters, are used to develop the discussion of the tradeoffs, local, regional and international governance opportunities and failures, and intervention possibilities. These species present particularly interesting challenges due to their dual nature as invasive species and market commodities. Part of the balancing act needed for a solution to the spread of the RKC has been directed at spatial containment, where the containment procedure depends on economic incentives of open access fisheries. We analyze whether such a solution would be feasible for the newer but more rapidly expanding snow crab invasion.